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January 2, 2016

Update for November

||| Major update incoming! |||

It's been way too long since my last update and a lot of things have happened since then.

Keep in mind that it was posted on November 7th so I'll be going pretty far back.

I met my mentée and had a talk with her mom about when we'd be meeting. We've had a couple of lessons together and I feel like we're connecting well - however, since I moved and now live 'far' away, we might have to split unless her parents are willing to drive her to my school once a week so we can have our lessons there. Everything is still really unsure (especially now that we're on break) so I can't say more than this.

On the day that all my classmates were out, I participated in the anti-terror exercise. We were given fake identities (my name was Paul and I was 70 years old) and told what had happened to us as well as our symptoms. My persona was shot in the abdomen twice and was going to die within 25 minutes no matter how much help I received. It was a long day but also a very interesting experience. I know that the police and other people involved did what they could but many of us ended up 'dying' because some things went wrong. The police thanked us for our help and one of the leaders held a last speech for us before they let us go. He finished with: "Were we good enough? No. Do we have the knowledge and tools needed in case of a terrorist attack? No. But this exercise made us realize what we need to work on so we thank you all for helping us".
Only 4 days later, the attacks in Paris occurred and it suddenly hit me how important exercises like this actually was (I knew it was important but it was emphasized).

I've met up a few times with the mother of a girl that I had religion class with back in the gymnasium. The mother is attending one of the design schools and was looking for 4 girls who would act as models, wearing her creations when she's going to show it off at her final exam on January 26th. That is also the reason why I won't be staying in Korea for more than 11 days.

On the 12th we had our second exam and it felt so much easier than the first one - maybe because we knew what we would be facing. This time I had my phone in front of me so I could keep a watch on the time and our teacher, Karin, would occasionally say things like: "Wow, there's 20 whole minutes left" and "You still have 7 happy minutes left." I love my teachers. Really.
This time I wasn't as worried about passing or not but of course I was happy when I did.(These pictures are not to brag but more of a proud memory for me to look back at)

That day when I came home, Christian told me that we had gotten an apartment.

The day after we attended a celebration at the university for the new bachelors from Korean Studies. My teacher, Karin, had arranged it and I'd say it was a great success.
First the bachelors presented their projects and we were shown how that could be done in many different ways. At that point I was way too focused on exams and my essay to even consider thinking about when it'll be our turn to write ours.

Afterwards we had Korean buffet (and soju (소주)) and oooohmygosh it was so good. I can't wait to go back to Korea and live like that again!

Our film club held our last movie nights and now my and Maria's (my classmate) time is up. It was interesting being a part of it but I'm not sad that we will have to leave the team. We can still attend the movie nights and it will give me a little more time on my hands.

My parents came over on the 20th and stayed the weekend at my aunt an uncle's place. They and my aunt and uncle helped us read through the rental contract and taught us some important things about taxes and other financial things. My aunt knew that if you lived far away from your school (which we would be once we'd moved), you could have your transportation covered by the state and suddenly we had just a tiny bit more money to ourselves.
On Saturday they had announced a snowstorm. When living in Denmark, you know that that's not very likely so when the snow started falling and I was getting all excited, my family was quick to tell me that it probably wouldn't stay.

...but the snow kept falling while the the snowflakes grew bigger and bigger and soon everything had turned white.

In the evening my dad drove us 'home' and while it only took us maybe 5-10 min. extra to get to Værløse from Knardrup, it took my dad and brother 1½ hour to get back (it usually only takes 15 min.) because there was so much snow. Trees had fallen due to the weight of the snow and cars were stuck e.ve.ry.where.
This is what it looked like when we came 'home'.

It kept on snowing all night and the next day we woke up to 40 cm of it.

And you know how the snow builds up on the sides when they push the snow away from the road? I had to almost jump over it to get to my caravan. At some point my entire leg got stuck when I tried to climb over the snow and it reached all the way up to my butt.

The following weekend I went to Sweden (I'll make another post on that) and the night I came back, a storm hit Denmark. Several trains and busses were cancelled due to this and the one I was supposed to take had been rescheduled for later. After 4½-5 hours in a bus I was rather worn out so thankfully Chris met up with me at the train station. The bridge between Denmark and Sweden was closed only half an hour after we had crossed it and on the way over, another Danish girl kept asking her brother if we were going to fall off and drown. Such optimism. But I understand. The bus was wobbling so bad due to the heavy winds.

Then December came around and to avoid this post getting too long, I'm going to split it here.
Stay tuned!